Unlike most birds of prey, the secretarybird hunts its prey on foot. Adults hunt in pairs and sometimes as family flocks. They stalk through the grass with long strides. Prey includes insects, mammals from mice to hares and mongoose, crabs, lizards, snakes, tortoises, young birds, bird eggs, and sometimes dead animals killed in grass or bushfires.

The bird is famous for hunting snakes. It even hunts venomous cobras and other reptiles. Its claws are weak and blunt, so to make a kill, it stomps on its victim, breaking its back.